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  3. Look at the people around you. Some are passive, others more aggressive. Some work best alone, others crave companionship. We ea

Look at the people around you. Some are passive, others more aggressive. Some work best alone, others crave companionship. We ea

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问题     Look at the people around you. Some are passive, others more aggressive. Some work best alone, others crave companionship. We easily recognize that there is great variation among the individuals who live near us. Yet, when we speak of people from elsewhere, we seem to inevitably characterize them based on their country of origin.
    Statistics specialists, when they speak of national averages, often make the same mistake.
    Newly published research shows how erroneous such overviews are. Three researchers analyzed decades of values-based surveys and found that only between 16% and 21% of the variation in cultural values could be explained by differences between countries. In other words, the vast majority of what makes us culturally distinct from one another has nothing to do with our homeland.
    To determine what factors really are associated with culture, the authors combined data from 558 prior surveys that each measured one or more of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. These are traits, such as individualism and masculinity, that describe work-related cultural values. (They are not a measure of visible cultural traits, such as food or dress.) Though the validity of Hofstede’s dimensions has been questioned, they have the singular benefit of having been in use for decades, which allows for historical and international comparisons.
    The researchers found that both demographic factors, such as age, and environmental factors, such as long-term unemployment rates, were more correlated with cultural values than nationality. Occupation and social economic status were the most strongly correlated, suggesting that our values are more economically driven than we usually give them credit for.
    The evidence implies that people with similar jobs and incomes are more culturally alike, regardless of where they live. Vas Taras, the lead author of the study, puts it this way: "Tell me how much you make and I will make a pretty accurate prediction about your cultural values. Tell me what your nationality is and I probably will make a wrong prediction."
    Taras says our erroneous belief that countries are cultures has caused businesses to teach their employees useless or even harmful ways of interacting with their international peers. Chinese and American lawyers might be trained to interact based on the assumption that the Chinese person is less individualistic, even though their similar social economic situations make it probable they are actually quite alike in that regard.
    The country, as the unit of authority, is often a convenient way of generalizing about a population. However, our focus on countries can mask broad variations within them. In the majority of cases we would be better off identifying people by the factors that constrain their lives, like income, rather than by the lines surrounding them on a map.
What does the author suggest at the end of the passage?
选项 A、There is sufficient reason to generalize about a country’s population.
B、The majority of people are still constrained by their national identity.
C、It is arguable that the country should be regarded as the unit of authority.
D、Nationality is less useful than socio-economic status as an indicator of one’s values.
答案D
解析 根据题干中的信息词at the end of the passage，答案线索可以定位在最后一段。最后一段提到，根据国家来概括人口特征，会掩盖国家内部存在的广泛差异。作者在文章结尾提出建议，在大多数情况下，我们识别人的时候，最好利用那些可以限制人们生活的因素(如收入)而不是通过地图上围绕人们的边界(即地图上的国家)。“限制人们生活的因素”其实就包括前文提到的“职业和社会经济地位”。也就是说，在评价一个人的价值观时，一个很有用的评价标准就是社会经济地位，而非国籍，选项D是对该段的概括总结，故为正确答案。其他三个选项都是利用最后一段中的个别词汇设置的干扰项，均排除。
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